The present invention relates to an axle bracket for a motor vehicle.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
Axle brackets are typically threadably secured with the vehicle body via respective attachment points. The axle brackets may find application in both the are of the front axles and the area of the rear axle. A transmission unit and/or electric motor can be mounted to the rear axle between side members and cross members of the axle bracket, with additional mounting being provided on the side members of the axle bracket for wheel guide elements.
In large-scale production of a model series, same axle brackets are installed, regardless of the respectively selected motorization. As a result, the axle bracket is dimensioned to suit operating forces encountered at maximum drive torque and thus highest possible motorization. This in turn means that the cross member to which the rear axle differential is mounted has a substantial material thickness which is evidently oversized, when vehicles of lesser motorization are involved. The proposal to provide therefore axle brackets of different dimensions to accommodate vehicles with different motorization is not viable for economic reasons.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to address this problem and to provide an improved axle bracket which obviates other prior art shortcomings.